Designing a Conceptual Framework for a Knowledge Hub in Tourism Destinations: Data Integration Across Ecosystem Stakeholders

In an increasingly data-driven global tourism landscape, destinations are challenged to manage vast, diverse, and dynamic information flows from multiple stakeholders, ranging from hospitality providers and local businesses to public authorities, cultural institutions, and visitors themselves. To support strategic planning, operational coordination, and sustainable development, this study proposes a conceptual framework for a knowledge hub tailored to the needs of tourism destination ecosystems. The proposed framework positions this hub as an integrated modular system that consolidates structured and unstructured data sources to support decision-making, performance monitoring, and innovation across the tourism value chain. It categorizes data inputs from four main stakeholder groups: Public Sector and DMOs (e.g., mobility data, visitor counts, infrastructure usage), Private Sector Operators (e.g., booking trends, service quality metrics, revenue data), Local Communities (e.g., resident feedback, sustainability indicators), and Tourists (e.g., online reviews, geolocation data, behavioral trends). The framework defines how these data streams can be processed using business intelligence and analytics tools to support destination governance, marketing strategies, experience personalization, and crisis response planning. It further outlines the enabling technologies, such as cloud platforms, APIs, data visualization layers, and open data standards, that would underpin the operation of the hub. This conceptual model contributes to the theoretical understanding of data governance and value co-creation in tourism destinations. It also addresses critical issues related to data ownership, privacy, interoperability, and trust among stakeholders. The proposed framework serves as a foundation for future applied research and pilot implementations of destination-wide knowledge management systems.